Desert Southwest Vacation 2007 (Days 1 and 2)

This year we decided to go to a region of the country that I have wanted to visit for a long time but have always put off.....the desert southwest. In part, I feared that a summer vacation to the desert regions of Nevada, Utah and Arizona just wouldn't be a good idea. Boy, was I wrong. Although it was hot--on most days the heat wasn't a big factor. On those days when the heat was bad, the mornings and evenings were very pleasant for hiking activities.....and even during the hottest late afternoon hours if you were in the shade, the breezes and low humidity made it quite pleasant. My only regret is that we moved from one place to the next every couple of days and didn't spend more time in the places we really liked. We'll defintely go back.

The overall plan was to fly to Las Vegas and tour the local environs, rent a car and make a clockwise loop to experience Zion Canyon NP and Grand Canyon NP, Byrce Canyon NP, Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell National Recreation Area, Flagstaff and Sedona Arizona, and return to Las Vegas via the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead NRA.

Day 1 (Saturday, June 16th). This was basically a travel day. We left BWI airport in the afternoon for the flight to Houston with a connecting flight to Las Vegas. There were thunderstorms in Houston which delayed our connecting flight to Las Vegas. By the time we arrived at McCarran International Airport, retrieved our luggage, leased the rental car, and found the Tropicana Resort and Casino hotel parking lot it was late and I think we pretty much unpacked and went to bed. However, the walk from the check-in counter to our room was our first of several long, torturous walks through the cavernous casinos on the Strip. The Tropicana Resort & Casino is located on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. The main original building, with the Garden room wings (where we stayed), was built in 1957. The intersection of Tropicana - Las Vegas Boulevard has the most hotel rooms of any intersection in the world; pedestrians are linked by overhead bridges to the neighboring casinos: Excalibur Hotel and Casino, New York-New York Hotel & Casino and MGM Grand Las Vegas — the latter being the largest hotel in the world, with 5,044 rooms. The resorts at the four corners have a total of 12,890 hotel rooms as of 2004.

The Tropicana had the look, feel, and odor (particularly that of cigarette smoke) charateristic of the older casinos---but at least it was budget-friendly and had a nice outdoor pool....and a large mirror on the ceiling above the bed.

Day 2 (Sunday, June 17th). On Sunday we visited Red Rock Canyon, one of several National Conservation Areas near Las Vegas featuring a Mojave Desert habitat. Before heading out we first stopped at Mr. Lucky's (in the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino) for breakfast. Afterward, I wasn't feeling so lucky after shelling out $60 for breakfast. However, the food was good and got our motors ready for the first day of hiking. RRC is about 30 minutes from downtown Las Vegas and features the Keystone Thrust in which older-aged rock (grey in the picture at left) of the La Madre and Turtlehead mountains had been thrust-up to a higher elevation than the younger-aged beige and red colored rock formations (known as Aztec Sandstone). After a quick stop at the visitors center and chat with a ranger we settled on a moderate 6 mile roundtrip hike to Calico Tanks. The rocks in Calico Hills were comprised of the Aztec sandstone and the trail led to a beautiful scenic overlook. The day was hot with lots of sunshine but the walk was comfortable; at the scenic overlook there was a great breeze that was especially refreshing. The picture below is typical of the terrain we hiked through to get to the scenic overlook; occsionally we had to scramble over rocks but mostly this a was pretty easy hike. When we finished the Calico Tanks trail we continued our drive around the 13 mile scenic park loop stopping at the Willow Springs Picnic Area to rest and take a short hike to observe some famous native american petroglyphs thought to be thousands of years old. This stop was our first sampling that there were sources of water (springs), even in the desert, and how important these springs were to life in this region. The picnic area where the spring flowed had more greenery and more life than that seen at Calico Tanks. Elroy set aside a few bits of oreo cookie on a nearby rock where we were lunching and within a few minutes numerous small chipmunks came to collect these treats. I'm sure these animals (and all the others we didn't see) don't stray too far from this important source of water. In addition, even though the day was starting to heat-up, where we were sitting in the shade was very comfortable. We made the short walk to observe the petroglyphs (see picture below) and then made our way back to Las Vegas and spent the remainder of the afternoon poolside.

In the evening we thought we'd walk the Strip. Although the walk was tedious at times---the distances inside and out of the casinos seemed to stretch on forever---I did think the activity along the Strip was interesting. We enjoyed walking into the Bellagio--one of the high-end casinos that was very elegant and hosts a choreographed water-fountain show in an artificial lake in front of the hotel (see picture below). The Bellagio is directly across from Paris Las Vegas which has a replica of the Eiffel Tower (also see below). We didn't go into Paris Las Vegas but viewing it (and other casinos like New York-New York Vegas and Luxor) from the outside was entertainment enough. We also happened into Desert Passage, a Shopping Mall that is supposed to suggest ancient trade route through Morocco. It was really cool---the ceiling resembling open sky and fooled me initially. Another notable stop was at Ceasar's Palace, where while looking for the Forum Shops (another unique shopping destination) we stumbled into a section of Caesar's called (I only found this out later---this was not planned beforehand) the Pussycat Doll Lounge where skilled cage-dancers performed to entertain weary gamblers. The picture of the PDL (see below) is not mine--when we passed the PDL, it looked like it was just beginnging to open for business--but I thought that a picture would be informative. After that, I was ready to call it quits for the day---and considered it a very successful day.